Energy : an important issue in the policies of the Euro-Mediterranean partners

Abstract

In the nineteenth and twentieth century, energy has been the primemover for the development and modernization of states and their people, but energy does not only deliver higher standards of living but also environmental challenges and geopolitical struggles. Before the industrial revolution Man's energy needs were modest. For heat, he relied on the sun and burned wood and straw. For transportation, the muscle of horses and the power of the wind in sails took him to every comer or the world. For work, animals were used. For thousand or years or human civilization, these forms or energy were enough. The invention of the steam engine revolutionized transportation, work and living conditions as coal replaced fire wood. By the tum of the century a new form or fuel was catching up: petroleum. Distilled versions as diesel and gasoline made new technologies such as the internal combustion engine viable and soon petroleum outsted coal as the main energy supply. After World War II nuclear power was unleashed, and governments found peaceful use of the "atom" in electricity production. As states evolved throughout history one tact surely they had in common : no state was ever self sufficient. Even the hegemon state required non-indigenous resources, and acquired them through trade or military might. Past hegemonies as the Netherlands, Portugal, and Britain and great powers as Spain and Germany today form with other states the European Union (EU). Throughout the greater part or this thesis the EU shall be considered as one entity and not fifteen states, as that is how the Single European Market visions the area. The Mediterranean sea gives direct contact through its shores between the EU and, the Northern countries or the African Continent, the countries or near Asia and the island states or the Mediterranean. In the past few years the EU has realized that it has a role in the maintenance of security in the Mediterranean and through a number of activities has tried to strengthen co-operation.